williams



Sept. 11, 1962 A. E. WILLIAMS STENCIL Filed July 1, 1959 In ventor ALAN E. WILL/y" bM/ Ml United States Patent 3,53,l7 i Patented Sept. 11, 1962 3,053,174 STENCIL Alan E. Williams, 316 Emery St., London, Ontario, Canada Filed July 1, 1959, Ser. No. 824,417 5 Claims. (Cl. 101-127) This invention relates to stencils for the application to designs to dyeable fabrics.

In United States Patent No. 2,701,460 of which I am a co-inventor, there is described and claimed an apparatus for dyeing textile materials selectively whereby a multicoloured pattern eifect may be created on the material and wherein faithful, permanent and sharp reproduction of even, intricate and detailed designs may be achieved in textile materials.

The invention described in the said United States patent related particularly to an apparatus adapted for the efficient dyeing of textile materials in a plurality of shades or colours in which the design imparted to the fabric is fast and sharp in outline.

While the said United States patent described and claimed an apparatus whereby such dyeing could be eifected, there was incidentally disclosed therein as a component thereof, a stencil adapted for the application of designs to textile articles.

Generally the method described in my earlier United States patent was to block off certain portions of the textile material to preclude the dyeing of that surface, this blocking off being accomplished by means of a stencil bearing the desired design and held in close contact to the textile article during the dyeing operation or operations to preclude penetration of dye into the pattern provided by the stencil during one or more dyeing steps.

The earlier United States patent described generally the stencil adapted to provide this blocking effect during dyeing operations and thus to provide a textile material having a design conforming with the shape of the stencil into which the dye had not penetrated. This method is particularly adaptable to the application of designs to socks, gloves and like articles.

According to the manner of my earlier invention the stencil used in the machine and held in close contact with the fabric during a dyeing operation, was provided with a pattern of suitable configuration in accordance with the designrequired, the said pattern being preferably formed of plastic plates secured to the face of a supporting or base plate, the base plate being secured to the machine during dyeing operations.

As was pointed out in my prior patent when the designs are intricate, however, the problem of ensuring a complete circulation of the dye around all parts of the stencil pattern becomes acute and the solution to this problem as stated in the earlier United States patent was to slot the underside of the pattern in such a way that the slot would permit penetration and circulation of the dye solution to all remote parts of the particular intricate pattern either in the outline of the pattern or therewithin.

It has been found in practice that the provision of stencils of the general class described in my earlier United States patent, while perfectly acceptable in practice, have proved to b relatively expensive and diflicult to manufacture. These disadvantages stem from the fact that the design must generally be formed from a block of plastic material, and the underside of the pattern thus provided slotted to provide for the penetration of the dye as already outlined. While this method has been difficult enough as applied to a unitary design, when it is applied to a design which involves a number of disjointed parts such as diamonds, squares, circles, or letters of the alphabet, it was necessary to form these disjointed figures in the upper surface of a design block and then slot the block by means of holes drilled transversely through the block and adapted to connect the channels between the disjointed design portions.

This invention has for its principal object therefore the provision of a stencil for applying designs to dyeable fabrics, which, while permitting penetration of the dye to all parts of any design, no matter how intricate will permit the construction of such a stencil with facility and at considerable less expense than has heretofore been the case.

It is another important object of this invention to provide such a stencil which, While retaining the benefits of economy, will at the same time give effective and positive results in the practice of the method set forth in my earlier patent.

It is yet another object of the invention to provide such a stencil which will be more easily and readily adaptable to the provision of stencils involving disjointed and disconnected shapes than has heretofore been the case.

These and other advantageous objects will become apparent through a consideration of the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the attached drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is an exploded perspective view of the stencil constructed so as to embody features of this invention and having a disjointed patternv including squares and other shapes; and

FIGURE 2 is an exploded perspective view similar to FIGURE 1 showing a design of a continuous nature, constructed so as to embody features of this invention.

The invention consists broadly in a stencil for the application of designs to dyeable fabrics comprising a base plate, a slotted intermediate block afiixed thereto, and a design or pattern affixed to the slotted block plate, the slots in the block being so located with relation to the design as to ensure thorough circulation of dye about all portions of the design.

In greater detail now and referring to the drawings and firstly to FIGURE 1, the stencil which forms the subject matter of this invention comprises a base plate 1 adapted to be held in an apparatus such as that disclosed in US, Patent No. 2,701,460 during a dyeing operation, a slotted intermediate block 2, and a pattern or patterns 3 all as hereinafter described in detail.

The base plate 1 consists of a shaped plate suitably dimensioned for the apparatus in which it is to be used, having a projection 4 extending outward from each side thereof and at the opposite diagonal corners with a hole 5 extending through each of the projections 4 for the purposes described in detail in United States Patent No. 2,701,460. According to the method of this improvement, the base plate may be formed from any lightweight material resistant to mild acid, alkali and reducing agents. The stencil must be acid, alkali and reducing agent resistant because of the conditions of acidity or alkalinity likely to be encountered from time to time in various dyeing solutions. Light weight is, of course, a desirable feature of the invention, and the material from which the stencil base plate is formed must additionally be nOnabsorbent of liquids of the class likely to be encountered under normal dyeing conditions. Because of the relatively low cost and excellent properties, I have found laminated polyester resin plastics of the thermosetting type to be most acceptable for this application, and in particular I have used a cotton laminated polyester resin manufactured by Bakelite Company and designated by their trade name C40-l with excellent results. According to the method of this improvement, the base plate should be thick enough having regard to the material used, to be rigid under operating conditions. If a plastic of the class described is used will prove satisfactory, and since sheets of this thickness are readily conveniently available, base plates may readily be cut or punched from :4 sheets.

A slotted intermediate block 2 is bonded to the base plate or otherwise secured thereto. This intermediate block will be of the general configuration of the exterior outline of the whole of the pattern hereinafter described in detail and the slots are provided on its upper surface i.e. the surface remote from the base plate.

In United States Patent No. 2,701,460 it was suggested that the pattern could be afiixed to the base plate by means of screws. I have now found that a more satisfactory result is obtained if the intermediate plate is bonded to the base plate as by means of a plastic cement which is able to withstand boiling water, mild acids and alkalis. There are many such compositions readily available on the market and compounds ordinarily used for bonding plastic or asphaltic tiles to floors have been used with excellent results. In particular a composition manufactured by The Armstrong Tile Company of Lancaster, Pennsylvania under their trade designation J1101 has proved extremely useful in this application.

The intermediate block is formed preferably of the same material as the base plate namely a laminated polyester resin but should be somewhat thicker and in practice I have used blocks cut from A2" sheet with excellent results.

The slot provided on the block which as will be seen hereinafter must coincide with the pattern so as to provide for circulation of the dye to all the interstices and outlines of the pattern, may, if he block is formed of /s" material, be as deep as and of the same or slightly narrower width.

The pattern 3 is fixed to the slotted surface of the block 2 by means of the same cement or bonding by which the block is affixed to the base plate. The design may also be formed of A1 thick of laminated polyester resinous material, and the design can consist of a series of disjointed shapes bonded to the base plate as in the case of FIGURE 1 and indicated as 3, 3A, 3B and 3C etc., or a single unitary pattern such as that indicated as 3D in FIGURE 2.

As may be seen by reference to the drawings the block is slotted to suit the particular design or pattern which is to be afiixed thereto, the slots coinciding with the intricacies of the pattern into which it would be otherwise difiicult or impossible to ensure adequate dye flow and circulation.

The use of a three-piece design involving a base plate, intermediate block, and design presents many advantages over the prior practice disclosed in my earlier United States patent of providing a design formed from a block of material and slotted directly. First of all the designs in this case may be stamped, out or punched from relatively thin A2) sheet material whereas in the former practice it was necessary to carve them by hand out of a block. In addition, the ease with which slots in the proper relationship may be provided on the upper surface of an intermediate block, is greatly superior to the slotting of the design according to former practice which could in many cases involve drilling holes through the design requiring some precision and considerable skill on the part of the operator.

The advantages of the present invention are particularly pronounced in the provision of esigns of a disjointed nature.

According to the method of this invention the base plate, block and pattern, may be readily formed from sheet material, bonded together, and assembled for as little as 30 percent of the cost of a like design according to the former practice.

I have described my invention in detail with reference to preferred embodiments. It is to be understood that the invention is not to be construed as limited to such embodiments. Obvious variations in dimension and arrangement of parts may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention, and such embodiments of the invention as come within the scope and purview of the appended claims are to be considered as part of this invention.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. A stencil for applying designs to dyeable fabrics which comprises a base plate, a slotted block affixed to said base plate and at least one design member affixed to said slotted block and forming a design, said design member having an upper surface adapted to be pressed against a fabric, side wall portions and a lower surface, said slotted block having an upper surface and a lower surface, and at least one slot formed in said upper surface of said slotted block, the outline of said slotted block conforming generally to the outline of said design, said slotted block not extending substantially beyond said de sign, said lower surface of said design member being adjacent said upper surface of said slotted block, said lower surface of said slotted block being adjacent the upper surface of said base plate, said slot extending beyond said design member so as to ensure thorough circulation of dye about said side wall portions, at least a portion of said base plate extending beyond said slotted block and said design member, whereby said base plate may be secured to dyeing apparatus, the spacing between said upper surface of said base plate and said upper surface of said design member being at least about A", and the spacing between said upper surface of said slotted block and said upper surface of said design member being not more than about Ms".

2. A stencil as claimed in claim 1 wherein said slotted block is bonded to said base plate and said design member is similarly bonded to said slotted block by means of a resinous cement resistant to mild acid and alkali and capable of withstanding boiling water.

3. A stencil as claimed in claim 1 wherein said base plate, slotted block, and design member are all formed of a laminated thermosetting polyester resin resistant to mild acid and alkali and to boiling water.

4. A stencil as claimed in claim 3 wherein said slotted block is about Ms" thick, said slot in said slotted block is about 2 deep and said design member is about Vs" thick.

5. A stencil as claimed in claim 4 wherein said base plate is about thick.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 393,867 Tompsett Dec. 4, 1888 2,200,314 Walker May 23, 1938 2,718,190 Bean Sept. 20, 1955 2,816,811 Tillett et a1. Dec. 17, 1957 2,864,310 Nelson Dec, 10, 1958 

